Ghost
by R. O. Knight
Summary: She's struggling with the tragic death of her partner. She can't bear the thought of living without him. His spirit won't rest until he knows for sure that she'll be okay...
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note 1: You guys probably noticed that I pulled a couple of my stories from the grid. For that I apologize. I have been crazy busy lately, and have run into a few issues with the aforementioned stories and I just needed to pull them and work on them in private for a little bit. As for the other remaining stories I hope to have updates for all of them by the middle of next week, please just bare with me a little bit longer. Thank you guy so much for your continued support. :)  
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**Author's Note 2: Just to caution you guys on this new story. It is, in my opinion, one of the saddest things I have ever written (I felt somewhat saddened as I was writing it). Just be warned, if crying or tearing up is not really your cup of tea, then I would steer clear of this one.  
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**Thanks Again, and As Always Happy Reading!  
**

_Everything settled at last. Deeks looked around, or at least tried to, but it was too dark to see anything at any distance. His flashlight would do him no good as it had been smashed during the buildings' first cave-in. He could feel warm, thick liquid oozing out from the leg wound he'd sustained during the first cave-in. He knew that meant the makeshift tourniquet Kensi had fashioned together earlier had now failed._

_He had already been through a couple of rounds of lightheadedness, and with the blood flow through his leg no longer restricted he knew he would soon have to endure that once again. He wasn't afraid to die, or at least that was what he'd been telling himself for the last few hours. It was the unpleasant sensations one had to suffer before that dark inevitability that bothered him._

_And anyway Deeks had resigned himself to the possibility of death hours ago. That wasn't to say that he had completely given up all hope for some miraculous rescue, quite the opposite actually. After all he had always played the part of the eternal optimist in his time with the team at NCIS. _

_It was a role that he'd been pushing even more after becoming trapped beneath layers upon layers of cement and brick. He did so not just for the sake of his own sanity, but more so for his partner's sake—for Kensi._

_He tried to move, but quickly realized that his already injured leg was now pinned beneath a new pile of heavy rubble. He felt no pain though, and knew once again that this absence of feeling was due in large part to the adrenaline that was now coursing through his veins once again._

"_Aah." He grunted as he tried to twist his pinned appendage free from its new prison. His efforts were to no avail though, and he soon ceased trying. "Well, guess I'm stuck here." He mumbled through a coughing spell._

_He remembered the cell phone he'd been holding on to since this whole mess began, and immediately began searching the area just around where he was laying sprawled against the cold, hard floor. _"_There you are." He whispered as he felt his fingers graze the sleek edge of the once elusive electronic device. He pulled it towards him, and then finally grasped it firmly in his left hand._

_The device was still turned off, which was how he'd last left it, and now he figured it would be a good time to switch it back on. He had been trying to preserve what little battery life the device still carried. He knew he wouldn't be able to make any kind of phone call with it because there was no reception this far down under; but he also knew that Eric and the others would be looking for them by now. If nothing else, maybe Eric could still track the GPS chip inside the phone._

_Deeks switched on the cell phone, and watched as it hummed to life in his hand(s). "Okay, Eric." Deeks breathed through a rather uncomfortable spell of dizziness. "Its your turn buddy. Work your magic."_

_He then placed his head gently against the ground, and fought the waves of nausea that were passing over him at that moment. Everything within him screamed for him to keep fighting the urge to close his eyes and sleep._

_He thought of Kensi all alone on the other side of the rubble wall. She had been so beside herself ever since this whole mess started, and he had been devoting all of his energies to comforting her, and trying to keep her optimistic through the whole ordeal._

_At this point he felt almost certain that he wouldn't make it out of this one alive, but he'd be damned to hell before he gave up on Kensi. Everything he'd done so far had been with the intention of ensuring her survival at the very least._

I'll rest when I know she's okay. Not before.

_Somewhere in the pitch-blackness he heard movement, and it made his heart leap into his throat with expectations. Then he heard the soft, familiar moan that followed. However faint that moan was, he knew it like he knew the back of his hand. It meant that his partner _was _still breathing._

That's my girl. Don't quit on me now.  
_

The dust settled in the darkness. She coughed and sputtered while her eyes struggled to find even the dimmest of light amidst the immense blackness that surrounded her. She fumbled for a moment before finally laying her hands upon the flashlight she'd dropped only moments before. She clicked it on, and the bright beam cut through the thick veil hanging over her.

The sudden burst of light made one thing unquestionably clear. She must have hit her head on the way down because now the intense throbbing in her temple was unmistakable. She reached her hand up to feel the area around the throbbing sensation and felt a warm liquid trickle gently over her fingers. _Great._

Then she heard a sound. It was a steady, rhythmic sound, and it drew her attention almost immediately. She listened intently trying to discern from where the sounded emanated.

"Deeks!" she coughed as more dust particles were sucked into her lungs. "Deeks, say something!"

She pulled herself forward on her hands and knees and crawled towards the furthest point from where she'd fallen. Her head ached and her vision was blurry, and she swayed with every movement she made.

"Deeks!" she tried again, still coughing and sputtering as she pulled herself along.

"Kensi." His reply came back weak and labored in nature. "K-Kensi."

Kensi dropped onto her side near a section of what was once a sturdy wall, now turned into crumbling rubble. She could hear the sound of his breathing through the crumbling wall that separated them at present.

"D-Deeks, are you alright?" she asked as she took a moment to quickly look herself over with the flashlight she held so close. "Deeks?" There was a long silence while Kensi was surveying the visible cuts and scrapes she'd managed to acquire during the tumultuous events that lead to their current predicament.

"Deeks?"

"I'm fine." He managed after a moment, swallowing a lump in his throat. "You?"

"I'm okay." She replied as she brushed her hand over a patch of exposed flesh just above her left bicep that had blood slowly oozing out from within her body. The top she wore was relatively new, and was one she was quite fond of. It was also ripped, now, in several places.

Suddenly the gravity of their situation registered fully with the female federal agent. She looked around at the mess of rubble and debris around her, and the grim reality of it all became quite clear. She heaved a great sigh and fresh teardrops dotted her delicate, dust-stained cheeks.

"Kens?" Deeks wheezed uncomfortably.

Kensi wiped some tears away from her face with the back of her hand, and at the same time smudged more dust and dirt across her features in the process.

"I'm sorry." She mumbled miserably.

"For what?" Deeks asked. There was a certain measure of pain clearly audible in his voice.

"Its my fault we're in this mess." She pointed out as she wiped a few more tears from her cheeks. This was so uncharacteristic of the badass federal agent, but it could not be helped at present.

"Don't beat yourself up." Deeks told her in a quiet voice. "You were doing your job—we both were."

She knew he was right. He usually was. Still, they both knew better than to do what they did. It had only been a few hours since the earthquake had shaken up their beautiful city, and as always, following an earthquake, the subsequent advisories warning about possible aftershocks had been posted all over the local news stations.

Kensi had chosen to ignore the advisories. She let a suspect in the investigation that her team had been running lead her (and her partner) into a rather unsound looking building just near the edge of town. She had even followed the fleeing man down towards the basement level of the structure.

Her actions this day would haunt her dreams for the long months to follow. Had she been able to see the consequences of her choices during the investigation they were running, maybe then she could have been spared the heartache that would plague her both day and night.

"Hey Fern," Deeks spoke quietly and with great effort on his part. "We're gonna get through this…alright?"

"No one knows we're down here, Deeks." Kensi reprimanded herself in angry silence for her actions over the course of the last several hours.

Deeks coughed rather loudly. "You'll be fine." Deeks managed at last. "You're a fighter. Stronger than any _man_ I know."

Kensi settled herself back against the rubble wall that divided her and Deeks, and folded her arms across her chest. "I-I don't know." She admitted in a low voice.

"Just hang in there, princess." Deeks said weakly. "Please…for me."

Kensi was feeling a little on the drowsy side, most likely as a side effect of the slight concussion she'd suffered during the aftershock that had trapped her and Deeks in their present dwelling.

The flashlight slipped from her hand and rolled a little ways down into her lap. Her eyes began to grow heavier and heavier with each passing second. The air around her was steadily growing thick with each exhalation of air from her lungs.

"Whatever…happens," Deeks panted heavily from the other side of the rubble wall. "Keep fighting…"  
_

"Ms. Blye?"

The sound of the red-haired woman's voice snapped Kensi out of the haze of her memories. She straightened up a little, and surveyed her surroundings, quickly, before settling back down.

"Ms. Blye?" the woman tried again.

"Yes?" Kensi responded at last, looking over at the red-haired woman standing directly over her in the pale colored hospital room.

Kensi had been in and out of consciousness for the last several hours, but the last two hours had been her best thus far. That said, the red-haired nurse had so seen fit then, to call the rest of her team up to visit.

"You have some visitors, sweetie." The red-haired nurse told her in a sweet voice. Then she motioned over her shoulder at the squad of apparent misfits huddled together just inside the door of the small room.

The red-haired nurse then turned, and nodded politely to the short, older woman at the head of the group as she left.

"Hetty!" Kensi exclaimed, though rather weakly.

"Its nice to you have you back among the living my dear." Hetty replied quietly to the younger woman's greeting. "You had us all quite worried for a bit there."

"Well, you had _them_ worried anyway." Callen spoke up from off to the side. "I knew you'd pull through though." He said forcing a smile.

"Yeah. Whatever." Sam retorted, and rolled his eyes slightly at his partner.

Something about the way they were all acting seemed very odd to Kensi, and it bothered her greatly. Not quite as much as her head though. Her head was still aching a little bit, and she kind of hoped that the red-haired nurse's next visit would bring with it some kind of pain meds.

"Hetty," Kensi tried again. Her voice was still heavy and weak, and it took a lot of energy to force the words through her lips. She needed to do this though-she had too. "I've been trying to get some answers…since I woke up."

Hetty winced at the implication in Kensi's words, and really wished with every fiber of her being that the somber knowledge she carried then weren't so heartbreaking.

"Perhaps now's not the best time." Hetty tried, with a soft smile at the younger woman laying in the hospital bed before her. "She really should be-"

"Hetty." Kensi repeated, but even more sternly the second time. "Wh-where is he?" She looked from Hetty to each member of her team. She searched their faces for some sign or inkling as to the answer to her question.

Sam shook his head, and Callen tried to look away. Eric and Nell were both motionless, and stone-faced to her gaze.

"Hetty, please?"

"Kens, Hetty's right." Sam said at once. His voice was soft and gentle, but pleading in its underlying nature. "You shouldn't-"

"Their right." Nell chimed in without lifting an eye in Kensi's direction. "You're still too weak. You need rest."

Kensi was beginning to get rather frustrated with her teammates, and wished that someone would just answer the damn question. "Hetty…_Where is he_?" Her voice was still weak, but now also thick with emotion. "_Where's _Deeks?"

Hetty hung her head in despair, and tried to speak a moment later but found the words oh so difficult to pronounce. Kensi could tell that something was wrong, but true to who she was she forced it all away, and refused to believe that her deepest, darkest fears had come true.

Then Callen stepped forward, and moved to Kensi's side. He lowered himself down to the edge of her bed. Then he looked deep into her mismatched eyes, and tried hard to keep the heavy emotion out of his voice when he spoke.

"Ken…Kensi." Callen started. His voice broke almost immediately, and he had to pause briefly to recompose himself before continuing.

Kensi could see the moist redness of Callen's eyes, and it told her that something had greatly upset him as of late. "G.-"

Callen shook his head at the brunette federal agent. "He…He didn't make it, Kensi." Callen finally managed to croak out the words. Hearing them out loud seemed to upset the normally unshakeable team leader.

Hetty stepped up to Callen's side, and laid a hand against his shoulder. There wasn't a dry eye in that entire room at that moment. Kensi sat in her hospital bed staring straight ahead motionless. Her heart and her head battled each other heatedly over whether or not to believe the heart-wrenching news that had just been delivered to her bedside.

Nonetheless, a single tear streaked down the length of her delicate cheek, and eventually dribbled down over the edge and fell down to the blanket that covered her lap.

…To Be Continued…


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note: Thanks for all the reviews/comments on the first chapter. It's the feedback from you guys that make doing this so much more fun, and really keeps me going. Furthermore, this chapter is a little bit longer than the last one, and really introduces the main theme that will ultimately be the centerpiece for subsequent chapters to follow.**

**Thanks Again Everyone, and keep the reviews/comments coming! **

They marched across the open field together in mournful silence. They were here to pay respects to their fallen comrade and friend. Callen led the group, and Hetty held the rear.

In the distance a funeral procession was already underway. Uniformed LAPD officers surrounded the burial site, and stood at attention. At the center was set a single cherry-stained wooden coffin. It was a sight that would render anyone speechless.

The attending preacher finished his closing sermon, and then four Senior Officers stepped away from the group as the final prayer commenced. Each of the four officers fell into a new line appropriately each one holding a rifle in hand.

Callen quietly held up a hand to halt his teammates' advance. There they all stood in line, and watched the proceeding ceremony with tear-filled eyes until its conclusion. The prayer ended, and then the four rifle-bearing officers performed an almost military style salute for the fallen Detective whose loss they had gathered to mourn.

Fresh tears dripped down Nell Jones' face as she watched the heart-wrenching salute. "I can't believe this is really happening." She whispered quietly with a slight sniffle.

Eric placed a comforting arm around his partner's shoulder, and gave a gentle squeeze. "It won't be the same without him." Eric added.

Hetty nodded in silent agreement with the tech specialist. "Mr. Deeks will be sorely missed. Of that we can be sure."

Callen stood motionless his gaze transfixed upon the funeral procession gathered around the burial site. All of the memories of the time that Detective Marty Deeks had spent with his team at OSP ran through his mind as they had been doing for the past 48 hours.

"He was a good man. A good cop." Callen said somberly. "He would have made one hell of an agent too."

Sam looked away momentarily, and hoped that no one saw the lone tear that had formed in the corner of his eye. "He wasn't afraid to be himself, and we gave him hell for it."

The emotion of the moment became too much for Nell, and she at once turned and buried her face in Eric's shirt. "I hope wherever you are…the waves are truly epic." Eric whispered into the wind.

"Kensi should be here." Nell pointed out as she finally pulled away from Eric's embrace, though only slightly.

True, the only member of the team (other than Deeks) who was not currently in attendance was Special Agent Kensi Blye. None of her teammates had seen or spoken to her since she checked herself out of the hospital.

"Everyone grieves in their own way." Hetty told the younger woman. Hetty now stood in the center of the group. "Ms. Blye was closer than any of us to Mr. Deeks, thus her pain is presumably far greater than our own."

The other team members nodded silently in agreement with Hetty's words of wisdom.

By this time the salute had ended, and the crowd gathered around Deeks' coffin had begun to move amongst themselves. Sam suddenly noticed, after a moment, that three indignant-looking LAPD officers had broken from the pack, and were rapidly approaching them.

"3 o'clock G. We've got company." Sam said quietly as he eyed the approaching officers suspiciously.

"I see'em." Callen replied cautiously.

Hetty's eyes were trained on the three men walking quickly towards them. "Everyone remain calm." She said to her team. She could feel the tension building around her, and as much as she wished to avoid any kind of negative confrontation—she couldn't help but feel as though it were an unavoidable inevitability. "Remember, we weren't invited. This is _their_ 'turf'."

"NCIS?" the lead officer questioned with unhindered disgust clearly visible in his voice, as the three men halted just a few feet away from where Callen stood.

Callen only nodded.

"Too bad. NCIS isn't welcome here." The lead officer told them, eyeing each member of the NCIS team individually.

Callen could hear the disdain in the officer's voice, and he didn't like it—not one bit. Especially knowing, as he did, that no one at LAPD really appreciated or liked Marty Deeks as a cop (or person) of any kind. To him their anger was misplaced and unwarranted.

"Look," Sam started calmly. "We don't want any trouble, alright. We're here to honor a friend." He told the officers.

A second officer, sporting a ridiculous-looking pencil-thin mustache, spoke up then from just behind the groups' leader. "What do you people know about honor?" he basically spat back at Sam.

"Plenty." Callen remarked coolly. He was trying really hard at this point to not just haul off and sucker punch the whole lot of them. "Detective Deeks was one of us…Agent or not."

The third officer scoffed at Callen's words. "_Cop-killers_ is more like it." He spouted distastefully. Then he spat on the ground near his own feet.

"Hey!" Sam snapped somewhat quietly. The veins in his forehead popped visibly with his short, emotional outburst. "That's uncalled for." He said with a low wave of his hand.

The lead officer smirked at Callen as a thought popped into his head. Callen stared back, glaring intensely, as if he could read the man's mind. In his own mind, Callen dared the officer to verbalize the unspoken thought that hung between the two men at that point.

"Speaking of cop-killers," the lead officer said at last. "Where is that murdering bitch? I see she's not with you."

Callen stepped forward after that, and brought himself to stand nearly toe-to-toe with the blasphemous officer. He held his fists clenched at his side desperate to put the loud-mouthed man in his place, but at the same time not wanting to give him or the other officers the satisfaction of seeing him lose his cool.

"You got something to say?" the lead officer threatened, leaning in towards Callen.

"You're seriously pushing your luck." Callen remarked in a low voice.

The officer smirked once again. "The truth hurts don't it?" he replied tauntingly. He pressed himself further into Callen's personal space as he spoke.

Callen's face seemed to grow even redder than it had been before as he stood glaring angrily back at the hateful LAPD officer.

Hetty seemed to sense just how far the tension had risen, and at once noticed that Sam was gradually settling into a defensive stance. He was visibly getting ready to back his partner up should the need arise.

"Last warning." Callen threatened still in the same low voice as before. This time he took the liberty of pressing into the other man's personal space (for a change).

"I'm not afraid of you." The officer replied in a menacing tone.

"Then bring it." Callen taunted him back.

Hetty moved forward at that moment, and forced herself in between the two men. She spread her arms out wide, and pushed the two would-be combatants apart. "Both of you—stop this at once." She said firmly.

Callen held himself back on Hetty's orders, but remained in a defensive-ish stance just in case the other guy decided to push forward anyway.

"Assaulting an officer of the law _is_ a crime after all." The lead officer taunted as he backed down ever so slightly.

"This is neither the time, nor the place for such childish displays." She spoke clearly and sternly as she eyed both men back and forth. Then she turned her attention fully to the three LAPD officers.

"We will respect the wishes of the LAPD," she added, albeit reluctantly. "You have our sincerest condolences for your department's loss." The three officers then watched as Hetty turned and ushered Callen off in the opposite direction. The rest of the NCIS team followed closely.

They were no more than a few yards away when the lead officer was overcome by a sudden impulse of stupidity that he found himself either unable or unwilling to control.

"Next time you see that cop-killing _bitch_—tell her to watch her back from now on!" the lead officer called out indignantly.

Callen halted on the spot, and so too did Hetty just a few feet ahead of him upon hearing the officer's thinly-veiled threat. The rest of the team stopped a few seconds later after noticing that Callen and Hetty had done so only seconds earlier.

Hetty closed her eyes. _Damn_. She had been so close to avoiding what she knew would now come next.

Callen spun slowly on his heel, and then marched right back up to the offending officer. Behind him, the rest of his team looked on in anticipation.

"That a threat?" Callen demanded, seeming to loom over the officer.

The lead officer puffed up his chest a little bit in front of Callen. "Yeah. So what? Maybe _she_ needs to be taught a lesson." The officer hissed in Callen's face.

Callen flared his nostrils involuntarily, his face red with anger, visibly fuming at the man's words. "Yeah well, so do you." Callen growled in a low voice.

Before the officer could reply to that, Callen's fist found the side of his jaw, and slammed into it with great force. The officer flinched and staggered backwards, grasping at the side of his face as he did so. Then all hell broke loose.

The second officer sprang forward almost immediately, and lunged towards Callen. Callen caught the guy in mid-air, and the pair fell backwards to the ground clutching and grabbing at each other like a couple of MMA fighters inside the octagon.

Something metallic in the third officer's hand caught Sam's eye at that moment, and the muscular black man broke into an all-out sprint headed towards the armed man.

The man looked up at the last second and saw Sam charging towards him. He quickly changed his plan of action, and raised the knife in a wide slashing motion as Sam came within reach.

Sam expertly dodged the motion with a quick sidestep. The officer's next attack, he parried with his forearm just before shoving his other elbow upwards into the man's nose. The man dropped the knife to the ground, and then fell onto his butt next to it.

By this time the lead officer had regained enough of his senses, and had chosen to rejoin the skirmish. He leapt forward onto Sam's back, staggering the big man a little, and then he wrapped his arms tight around Sam's neck and squeezed.

Sam wasted no time in grasping the officer by the elbows and then flinging the unsuspecting man over his shoulders. The man landed hard on his back against the ground in a sort of semi-body slam type maneuver.

Across the way, the little episode between the NCIS Agents and the LAPD Officers had begun to attract attention from some of the other officers who were still mulling around by the burial site. Several of these men even felt the need to join in the fray, as it were, and rapidly advanced on the scene.

Callen was finally back onto his feet after having managed to fight the second officer off of him at the last second. As he turned to face his partner one of the new combatants, just joining in, brushed by the muscular Special Agent and lunged straight at Callen.

"G!" Sam called to his partner.

Callen had already seen the guy coming, and quickly sidestepped him. As he did this though the man tripped over his still outstretched foot and wound up hurled blindly to the ground.

Callen looked at the guy for a brief second before moving back to aid his partner. "That one's all on you." Callen muttered as he moved away from the still dazed police officer.

Hetty, Eric, and Nell had moved in closer, by this point, and were attempting to break up the still ongoing fight. "Be careful." Hetty warned the other two as she moved off to one side.

Nell wound up getting a little too close, by accident, and took a misguided blow from just off to her left. Startled, she fell backwards, hands outstretched, to the ground. She immediately cried out upon impact, and quickly turned over to one side clutching at a newly sprained wrist.

"Nell." Eric cried, as he reached her side. "You alright?' he asked, as he nudged her back towards her feet.

"I think it's sprained." Nell sniffled at the searing pain that shot up and down through the injured appendage.

Eric shot an angry glance at the uniformed man whose fault it was. "What the hell man!" Eric exclaimed, swearing not usually his cup of tea.

The man shrugged. "Next time watch where you're going." Was all that the man said before moving away.

Eric stood up and marched angrily towards a now unsuspecting uniformed officer. "Hey you!" he called angrily to the man (whose back was turned).

The man spun around on his heel almost without thinking, and before he knew what was happening ran face first into Eric's outstretched fist. The man staggered backwards onto his back.

A nearby LAPD comrade, seeing his fellow officer's fate, jumped in next to take vengeance upon the NCIS Tech Specialist. "Uh oh." Was Eric's response to the new challenger.

From behind them, though, a muscular forearm shot forward and grabbed the man by the collar of his jacket, and snatched him backwards to the ground.

"This isn't really a good place for you and Nell to be right now." Sam told the geeky surfer dude.

"Right." Eric nodded, and then quickly returned to Nell's side.

Just then a gunshot rang out above the raucous crowd, followed soon after by a second shot. Everyone stopped, and starred in all directions looking for the source of the shots.

It was Hetty standing off to one side with a small revolver held high over her head. She looked, by all appearances, mad enough to kill. "Enough!" she roared over the now silent group.

At that same moment LAPD Lieutenant Roger Bates appeared next to Hetty. He himself did not look too happy at that particular time. "What the hell's going on here!" he demanded, glaring across the way at the officer who had instigated the whole debacle.

"They started it...sir." the lead officer replied, as he pulled away from Callen's still firm grasp. "Dirty cop-killers." He spat angrily.  
_

Rain had begun to pour ceaselessly from the sky outside OSP. This was a phenomenon that was not all that common in L.A., but all the same it seemed fitting given Kensi Blye's current mood.

The building was quiet overall, but that was to be expected on this day. Everyone had been given the last couple of days off in the wake of the earthquake that had shaken the city and its residents to the core.

Inside, the mission's gymnasium was filled with the sounds of an angry female federal agent as she pounded her fists unmercifully against the punching bag.

She hadn't bothered to turn on any lights on her way in. She hadn't wanted to. The only thing that seemed to be on her mind at present was punching the living hell out of that defenseless punching bag.

Her entire body was soaked from head to toe in sweat, and her eyes were dark from lack of sleep over the last several hours. Her fists had begun to feel raw and achy, but she only shook her head, ignored the searing pain, and kept on punching.

"_This can't be healthy." Deeks remarked somewhat humorously._

Kensi ignored it. That was what she'd been doing for the last few hours anyway.

"_No sleep. No make-up. You look like a raccoon I saw eating out of my uncle's garbage can once." He joked._

Kensi paused briefly, to catch her breath, and then once again resumed her relentless abuse of the punching bag that hung before her.

_It had been there. He had seen it. When she paused for air, he'd seen that familiar look of annoyance in her eyes even though she had tried to hide it. It wasn't much, but at least it was something._

"_Alright. Fine. Just keep treating me like I don't exist." He pouted. "Its what you're good at." He hadn't meant it to sound as harsh as it did._

There was momentary silence that filled the gym as Kensi ceased her assault on the punching bag. It was an eerie, tension filled silence that made Deeks wish he had just kept his mouth shut. Instead, though, he had once again shoved his foot right into it.

Kensi shook it off though, and once again resumed the torturing of her already tender fists. She knew full well what he was trying to do, but it was something that she simply did not feel she _could_ do.

She had been telling herself that none of what was happening was real. She convinced herself at some point that refusing to accept that which her heart knew to be true, would somehow render it all as nothing more than some kind of sick nightmare she would soon awaken from.

The female federal agent took a step back from the bag. She reared her left arm back getting ready to throw a hard left hook, but then Deeks was suddenly standing between her fist and its target.

"_Denial is _not_ your best color." He joked half-heartedly._

Kensi was exhausted and frustrated, and angry and sad all at the same time. All of that came to a head right then and there. "No!" she growled as she let go of the left hook. Her fist smashed hard into the punching bag, and then she immediately turned and stormed off towards the showers.

"I am _not_ in denial." She growled as she stalked away.

Deeks appeared in front of her about halfway through her stride. He stopped her at once, and narrowed his eyes at her. She avoided direct eye contact with him, knowing full well that giving in would mean the same as acceptance.

"_Kensi, stop." His voice was firm but gentle as he spoke. "You need to let go." He added softly. He seemed to take her bare fists into his own hands, and he held them ever so gently. When he spoke to her his voice was thick with emotion._

"_I know you're hurting." He told her softly. "I know how much you wish this wasn't real…but it is."_

Kensi shook her head at his words.

_Deeks held her hands where she could see the flesh around her knuckles. The hours of abuse had rubbed the tender area raw, and her knuckles were actually starting to bleed a little bit. "Look at your hands Kens…this isn't a dream."_

Kensi moaned deep in her throat, and then without thinking yanked her hands away and bolted for the showers. Deeks stared after her as she ran, saddened by the immense pain he'd witnessed deep in her mismatched eyes.

…To Be Continued…


End file.
